Gain Insights into Your Performance Max Ad Campaign Traffic Sources

Performance Max campaigns are the most opaque of black boxes that Google Ads has put out to date. Want a little peek inside that black box? Take a look before Google patches up this loophole.

With a clever copy-and-paste script from Mike Rhodes at AgencySavvy, you can see how much of your Performance Max traffic is coming from each ad type: search, shopping, video, and display.

I love to see this kind of creative workaround to solve for Google’s lack of transparency. It’s not perfect data, but it’s powerful enough to draw some compelling conclusions.

1. This is not the mark of a well-oiled machine. Even after months and months of data, Performance Max still has wild fluctuations in channel distribution. What would you tell your account manager if you saw this kind of spend volatility between networks? You have to squint pretty hard to look at 80% swings in spend and call it algorithmic brilliance.

2. Often, it's the high-ROAS channels like search and shopping that are buoying investment in low-ROAS channels. You do get the advantage of increased brand awareness through channels like display, Gmail, and YouTube, but how much more effective could your overall program be if you had control over your channel mix?

Performance Max has its place. For many clients, it continues to rock. But for others – often the more seasoned accounts – it can be an oversimplification that loses its luster when you sneak your way behind the curtain.